NVidia vs. KT600

[Karel J. Bosschaart]

On Thu, Jul 22, 2004 at 05:20:44PM +0200, Uwe Laverenz wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> I have a strange problem with the NVidia drivers on my machines: when I start
> a glx-application (glxgears, quake2...) the performance is normal. If I
> make another attempt a few minutes later, the performance is ridiculous slow.
> 
> Example:
> 
> glxgears, 1st run: 6400 FPS
> glxgears, 2nd run:   17 FPS
> 
> FreeBSD-versions: 5.2.1-p9 and 4.10-STABLE
> Nvidia-cards: GF4-Ti/4200
> Boards: Asus A7V-600 (Athlon XP)

Same problem here on FreeBSD 5.2 (recent -current), I have the same
nvidia card with an Asus A7M-266 board (AMD chipset). I haven't observed
it on 4.10 (yet?).
 
> If have tried several combinations of AGP-Support (FreeBSD vs. NVidia),
> nvidia-sysctls, XF86Configs ... without success.
> 
> The next strange thing: if I wait several minutes, the performance
> is normal again, but only for 1 attempt, the next one ist slow again. This
> makes playing Quake2 impossible, because connecting a server includes a
> "vid_restart" (-> sloooow).

Yes, looks familiar. I'm playing UT2004 and often it starts very slowly.
A workaround that sometimes works for me: I switch to console (ctrl-alt-F1),
and wait until I hear from the sound that the main menu is displayed. 
Switching back and voila, it's back to normal. At least, most of the time :-P.
(Usually, doing this sort of things is asking for trouble.)

> I guess that something gets "locked" somehow. The next thing I want to
> try is an older 4.x version.
> 
> Could this be a problem with the VIA KT600 chipset? Does anybody
> else experience this problem or am I the only lamer playing Quake on
> FreeBSD? ;)

You're not the only one... different chipset, different game but looks
like the same problem. 

Karel.